Big release news today: Warner Home Video has just officially announced the Blu-ray and DVD release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug on 4/8. There’s a Blu-ray/DVD Combo pack (SRP $35.99), a Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD Combo pack (SRP $44.95) and a rental DVD version (priced at $22.97). This is of course the theatrical version of the film. Extras on both Blu-ray versions will include Production Videos, New Zealand: Home of Middle-Earth, Part 2 and something called Peter Jackson Invites You to the Set. There’s no word yet on the forthcoming BD and BD3D release of the Extended Edition of the film, but if the past is any predictor (and it usually is) look for those to street on either 11/4 or 11/11. Meanwhile, you’ll find the cover artwork below. [Read on here...]

About Bill Hunt

Bill Hunt is the Editor in Chief of The Digital Bits, and the co-author (with Todd Doogan) of the Amazon Top 50 selling book The Digital Bits: Insiders Guide to DVD. Hunt founded The Bits in 1997, in the early days of the DVD format,…